RANGE ESTIMATION BY OPTICAL DIFFERENTIATION

We describe a novel formulation of the range recovery problem based on computation of the differential variation in image intensities with r espect to changes in camera position. This method uses a single statio nary camera and a pair of calibrated optical masks to measure this dif ferential quantity directly. We also describe a variant based on chang es in aperture size. The subsequent computation of the range image inv olves simple arithmetic operations and is suitable for real-time imple mentation. We present the theory of this technique and show results fr om a prototype camera that we have constructed. (C) 1998 Optical Socie ty of America.